Prosperity without GrowthTim Jackson4th March 2010
Rockstrom et al, Nature 461, Sept 2009
• Growth is unsustainable
• De-growth is unstable
The Dilemma of Growth
GDP = Labour x LP
Life Expectancy at Birth
IcelandNorway
Ireland
Japan
United StatesUnited Kingdom
New ZealandMaltaChile
Bahrain
Costa RicaCuba
Russian Federation
China
Gabon
South Africa
Botswana
India
Swaziland
Mozambique
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
0 5,000 10,000 15,000 20,000 25,000 30,000 35,000 40,000 45,000 50,000
GDP per capita (PPP $2005)
Lif
e ex
pec
tan
cy a
t b
irth
(ye
ars)
The Dilemma of GrowthSource: Prosperity without growth, Tim Jackson (London, Earthscan 2009)
x 130 improvement
CO2/$ < zero by 2100?
Households
Firms
IncomeInvestment Novelty
Price
Spending
Increasingproductivity
The Engine of Growth• shareholder value• creative destruction
• status consumption • a life without shame
Credit
Prosperity consists in our ability to flourish as human beings – within the ecological limits of a finite planet.
• material flourishing: food, clothing, shelter• social and psychological flourishing: identity, meaning,
participation in the life of society • rethinking social goods and public spaces
A Better Prosperity?
A Better Economic Engine?
Ecological Investment• low carbon transition• ecological assets• livelihoods
Ecological Enterprise• provide capabilities• support communities • tread lightly
A Better Nature?
Tradition
Novelty
Self
Other
Ecologicalenterprise
People
Ecosystems
Ecological investment Ecosystem
services
Participation Capabilities
ecologicalproductivity
improvedflourishing
Economics for a finite planet
http://www.earthscan.co.uk/pwg
‘The crisis doesn’t only make us free to imagine other models, another future, another world. It obliges us to do so.’
President Sarkozy, September 2009